These Were the Most Googled Car Brands in 2016

Tony Markovich

Dec 26, 2016

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Thanks to Google and smartphones, the act of extended wondering is dying out. If somebody is curious about anything, all it takes is a swift pocket pull, a couple of taps, and boom, there will be a multitude of explanations and answers staring at you, courtesy of a website with a few colorful letters and a blinking cursor. Google is such a popular service that the brand name has become a verb, synonymous with the phrase “look it up.”

Want to know the horsepower of a 1968 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396? Google it! The search page has become an invaluable tool for car research (almost as invaluable as Car and Driver).

So what are people looking up? Google released its year-end review, and the results tell an interesting tale.

There are a few educated guesses we could make about these findings. Jaguar, Bentley, and Maserati all released their first SUVs ever this year, which surely piqued interest. According to Automotive News, Volvo’s sales in the United States for the year through November grew from 60,705 in 2015 to 72,595 in 2016, and the company also has made a lot of noise about self-driving technology. Ford brought out the GT supercar and the Focus RS, two vehicles that have garnered a lot of interest. Lamborghini is, well, it’s Lamborghini (but where’s Ferrari?). Mercedes-Benz was the number-one luxury brand in sales this year, but while BMW isn’t far behind, it doesn’t make this list. As for Honda, it has three of the most purchased vehicles on the planet: the Civic, the Accord, and the CR-V.

Check out the rest of the list on Google’s Trends page, and play around with the data to see exactly what states are searching what cars the most.